Monday, 29 October 2012

A chance encounter with Paul Lignères of Château la Baronne over lunch
at Easter led to a cellar visit in the Corbières in September.We met up in the village of Moux.I had first visited this estate for my book
on French Country Wines.when Paul’s
father, André, was running it with his
wife Suzette in the mid-1980s. At the
time you very much felt that they were among the pioneers of Corbières, and the
next generation, Paul, and his brother
Jean, have maintained and improved the quality, and deserve a wider reputation
than they currently have on the British market.

First stop was a cellar for barrel ageing. The use the OXO system which enables them to store the
barrels five high – as many as ten levels is possible –and you can turn the
barrels automatically so that racking is much simpler. But it’s expensive. For
oak, they favour Darnajoux, a cooper in
St. Emilion, and use new wood very cautiously, renewing barrels after six or
seven years. They ask for a chauffe
moyen.

The barrels are expensive –‘ il
faut pleurer’, to have your order accepted, and again when you pay the bill,
said Paul. Altogether, they have five
ageing cellars, containing a total of 600 barrels, three cellars in the village of Fontcouverte, this one in
Moux, and one at the Château de la Baronne, outside Fontcouverte, which is where we went next to see the vineyards
and vinification cellar.

Paul explained that the Montagne d’Alaric, which dominates the skyline,
acts as a régulateur de l’eau; it is a limestone mass and operates like a
sponge. Its altitude is between 270 – 300 metres, creating
a microclimate, with the prevailing wind coming over the mountain, cooling the
air, and making ultimately for more acidity in the wines. The wind – and it can blow in the Aude – is ‘notre
grand copain’.

Altogether they have three estates, totalling 110 hectares. There is Domaine de la Baronne, and adjoining
it, Domaine las Vals, and they have a separate property, Domaine du Plo de
Maorou, which is joint venture with the Jackson family in California, and only
sold in the US. The harvest was in full
swing; everything is hand-picked and there was a cheerful team of Andalusian
pickers in the vineyard – the same people return every year – 24 cutters and 6
porters, making an efficient team.

Paul
explained that the vineyard soil is argilo-calcaire, but very heterogeneous;
they have four geological eras within about four kilometres and about fifteen
different terroirs within the estate, all based on clay and limestone. Everything is organic; they were certified in
2010. Their oldest vineyard is Carignan,
which was planted in 1892 and Carignan
accounts of 40% of their vineyards. Paul
is particularly partial to that variety, liking its elegance and length and he
finds it a very good expression of the terroir.

Back in the cellar grapes were being meticulously sorted. Rejects are composted. They use natural yeast, which gives a slower
start to the fermentation and no S02 during fermentation, which takes place either in stainless
steel vats or in tronconique oak vats. There
was Roussanne in a tronconique vat; which is given some skin contact until the
fermentation starts. It had been
destalked. Some Vermentino was given 24
hours of maceration in the press, and then settled at 14˚C for a débourbage,
without using any enzymes. A smiling
Italian, Alessio, was running the cellar.
There is an Italian influence as the Tuscan oenologist, Stefano
Chioccioli, is their consultant, working
alongside Marc Dubernet, who is based in Narbonne.

We tasted some Roussanne juice that was sweet and grapey, with acidity
and not yet fermenting. Paul explained
that it can be difficult to control the temperature, if you have large vats for
carbonic maceration. Here they had
small vats of Carignan, which makes for cooler temperatures. The key factors are size of vat and
temperature of grapes when they go into the vat. You can’t control the temperature once the grapes are in the vat. And you don’t want to
identify the terroir with a Carignan made by carbonic maceration; you can only
identify terroir with a classic vinification.

And in an outhouse was an old lorry, a Berliet dating from 1919, which
Paul's great grandfather had driven, to deliver barrels. It reached a speed of 13 k per hour –and curiously
the steering wheel was on the right-hand side.
And then we adjourned to the old cellar that had been Paul’s great-grandfather’s,
dated 1890, with the enormous foudres of Hungarian oak.

Paul explained that for his red wines, he makes three levels at la
Baronne, namely les Lanes, les Chemins and a selection of different
terroirs.

2011 Domaine des
Lanes, IGP Hauterive – 9.00€

A blend of Grenache Blanc and Vermentino – 50/50 Light colour; light pithy nose; quite rounded
with some fresh acidity. Quite sappy; citrus
notes, grapefruit pithiness. Not
debourbé; natural yeast, but no so2. So2
is good for conservation, but during
vinification is an extracteur, and ‘results in une extraction malfaite’. Batonné sur lies.
Good mouth feel with a certain weight.

2010 las Vals, IGP Hauterive
-15.00€

From Roussanne grown on the foothills of the Montagne d’Alaric. Light golden
colour; quite rounded, rich, very good texture.
A blend of the three styles of Roussanne, stainless steel, barriques and
skin contact with whole grapes. There is
a touch of tannin from the stalks, with refreshing acidity. Paul observed that a low pH is a
characteristic of the estate. And the
so2 is low too.

2010 Domaine des Lanes, Corbières
– 2010

A blend of Grenache and Carignan.
No wood. The wine spends twelve
months in cement tanks, on the fine lees,
with some bâtonnage. The wine is neither
filtered nor fined. Medium colour. Rounded fruit on the nose. Quite spicy berry flavours. Some tannins, with an elegant palate and a
fresh nervosité. Medium weight and eminently
drinkable. They want buvabilité, which sounds more appealing than drinkability.

2010 Les Chemins, Corbières –
12.00€

A blend of Carignan, Grenache and Mourvèdre, from different terroirs,
and some aged in vat, and some in barrel.
Deeper colour. A richer nose,
more confit and a very rounded palate, but with a freshness and nervosité, and some lovely dry spicy
fruit. They are careful about extraction,
aiming to extract as little as possible.
The wines are treated very carefully in the cellar, and great attention
is paid to the work in the vineyards.
Paul was adamant that they do not want to make heavy or tiring wines, and they have certainly succeeded,
producing wines with an elegant finesse that leave you wanting more.

And then we went onto a selection of different terroirs, beginning with:

2009 Alaric, Corbières – 17.00€

60% Syrah with some Carignan and Mourvèdre, mostly in barrel, but not
new wood. They do not want their wines
marked by oak. Deep colour, with a much
richer more confit nose. Quite solid and
rounded on the palate, but not too heavy.
Dry spice balanced with elegant tannins.
2009 was a hotter year, so the wine is less fresh compared to the 2010s. The Syrah dominates the palate.

2010 Alaric, Corbières – 17.00€

Lighter nose. More elegant
fresher nose and palate. Quite sturdy
tannins, with a refreshing note on the palate and more vivacity. Nice balance of elegance and tannin. Very appealing.

2009 Pièce de Roche, IGP Hauterive -24.00€

This is the Carignan that was planted in 1892 – they have 4 hectares,
with 15,000 plants. La Pièce describes la plus belle vigne du domaine. Traditionnel vinification. Destemmed. Quite serious, dense and concentrated, with
acidity and tannin. Very youthful. Neither filtered nor fined. Carignan always gives a tannic streak, with
considerable length. Dense rustic berry
fruit. Paul observed that the cadastre viticole which records what was planted
where did not start until 1905 – so they do know exactly what was planted after
phylloxera and before 1905.

2010 Piece de Roche, IGP Hauterive

Again I preferred this to the 2009.
The was a wonderful purity of fruit.
Quite a firm nose, with some red fruit – those little griotte
cherries. A lovely freshness and more
vivacity. Very satisfying mouth feel. Fresh acidity and tannin. Stony fruit and minerality with some berry
notes. Again as little so2 as possible –
they are working on reducing the sulphur levels.

2010 Les Chemins de Traverse – 14.00€

A blend of Carignan, Syrah and Mourvèdre, vinified in the tronconique
vats, without any additional so2. Yeast
always produce some so2. Quite a heavy
nose, a tad reduced, but with a fresh palate, fresh cherries, acidity and
elegance developed as the wine breathed in the glass. Quite a firm finish with tannin from the
stalks.

Paul observed that there is an important market for wines without
so2. However, the vins natures need more
polyphenols to protect them against oxidation, and you do not get the same
identification of terroir that you get with more conventional wines.

Sunday, 21 October 2012

This is an annual tasting that I really enjoy. Wine writers, and this year, for the first time,
sommeliers, are asked to choose three of their favourite wines from France, in
three different price bands – under £8; between £8 and £15 and something special
for Christmas. There are some classics,
and some quirky and original wines, and of course the Languedoc got a good look
in. And the great thing about this tasting
is that you know that there will be no dud wines, because one of your
colleagues is really enthusiastic about each of the 150 wines at the tasting. It was quite a marathon and what follows are
my highlights.

2011 Côtes du
Roussillon, Château Saint Nicolas - £5.99 - Waitrose

Syrah, Grenache and Carignan. Good colour. Rounded, ripe and perfumed, with a touch of
orange and some leathery fruit on the palate.
Youthful and characterful and excellent value.

A blend of Grenache Gris, Grenache Blanc, Macabeu and
Carignan Blanc. Light golden. Quite a rich, resinous rounded nose, with more
resinous oak on the palate. Lots of
texture, weight and body, and considerable length. Full of character.

2010 Château Rives-Blanques Limoux Cuvée Occitania Mauzac should
have been included but it had transmogrified into their sparkling Blanquette de
Limoux, which was rounded, ripe and creamy with some herbal notes on the
finish.

2011 Vermentino,
L’Atelier Miquel, Pays d'Oc - £9.99 - Waitrose

Quite a rounded nose, with some herbal notes, and on the palate
ripe with a pithy finish. A Vermentino
with some character.

NV Le Mas des
Masques, Silex Chardonnay - £14.50 - Swig.

I'm not sure exactly where this is from. The producer's name was a cryptic SCEA DDM and the address 13100, which is somewhere in the Bouches du Rhone. This was wonderfully
funky. A light colour; ripe oaky buttery
and powerful and both nose and palate.
Rich and characterful. And about
as far removed as you can get from my favourite Chardonnay that is Chablis.

And straying out of the Languedoc across the water
to Corsica:

2011 Coteaux de
Cap Corse Rosé, Domaine Pieretti - £13.95
from Yapp Brothers. And also
available at Harrods, as their new buyer, Jo Aherne MW, informed me, but I
don’t have their price

Grenache Noir, Nielluccio and Alicante. Pretty
light colour; light fruit on the nose with a delicate palate, but also with
some hidden weight. Lovely balance, and very
stylish.

There was also a rosé from Chêne Bleu, an estate near the
Dentelles de Montmirail – I can’t give you the grape varieties, or the correct
price, as there was a bit of a blip and the tasting sheet said Chardonnay! A nicely rounded ripe, rather vinous rosé, with
texture and body. Very satisfying.

Grenache Gris and blanc. Light golden colour. Ripe, rounded,
rich and leesy with a resinous note on
both nose and palate. Good acidity. Youthful with potential for development. develop.
Lots of nuances and texture. Very
intriguing.

2008 Domaine le Soula blanc.
Côtes Catalanes - Roberson Wine -
£26.95

A blend of Sauvignon, Macabeu, Vermentino, Grenache blanc and Gris, with a drop of
Marsanne, Roussanne, Malvoisie du Roussillon and Chardonnay. Light colour. Quite
rich and leesy on the nose. Rounded ripe
textured palate. Great depth and
length. Could age, but drinking nicely
now.

Tuesday, 16 October 2012

An encounter with Anne Lauvige at a tasting in London
resulted in an invitation to visit Château Prieuré Borde-Rouge in the Corbières near Lagrasse. Pierre Roque, who is their consultant oenologist,
was also there and we said a brief hallo to Bertrand Boileau, the cellar
master, who was busy with the harvest.

First a quick update.
I remembered coming to this estate at in the late 1990s were when it was
owned by Alain and Natasha Quenchen. They had bought an abandoned property in
1994 from an old lady who sold her wine en vrac to the big producers' union of Vignerons Val d’Orbieu, so that it was Alain and Natasha started the
path of reviving the fortunes of Prieuré Borde Rouge. They renovated the cellar and planted some
Syrah, and concentrated on the best 20 hectares of the estate. Then in 2005 after Alain’s death the property was sold again to a father and
son, Jean and Frédéric Carrère, who work in property development,
but wanted a base for their family in the region where they had spent their
childhood. They had looked for and found a functioning
vineyard.

We were taken first for a walk, and then a more extensive
drive through the vineyards. The first
thing you notice is the red soil, which matches the red plaster of the
house. A lot of work has been done in
the vineyards. They are now organic;
they have regenerated the fauna of the soil, using tons of manure each year and
also bought back some of the original vineyards which had been sold off, so now
the estate totals 39 hectares, on clay and limestone, with a high iron content. They have also planted olive trees, not just
the Lucques that are common in the Midi, but seven or eight other varieties.

They were mid-vintage at the time of our visit in
mid-September. Whites and rosé had been picked the
previous week and they were about to start the reds. The crop is down on last year; Pierre wasn’t
sure why. The sortie had been difficult;
last year there had been a large sortie so perhaps a natural balance had come
into play. The prieuré depends on the
stunning abbey of Lagrasse; there is a path past the vegetable patch into the
nearby village, which the monks must have used. And as for the red soil, local legend has it
that Charlemagne fought and defeated the Saracens in this valley, and the soil
is red with their blood. The village
used to be called Lemaigre and the name has changed to Lagrasse, from thin to
fat.

They are equipped to irrigate in some parts of the vineyard,
as they want to avoid stressing the vines, but it is not drip irrigation;
instead the equivalent of good 20 millimetres of rain can fall at any one time. The principal grapes are Grenache, Syrah and
Carignan, with a little Merlot for vin de pays, and they also planning to plant
Cinsaut. And for white wine they have Grenache
Blanc, some old Macabeo and Clairette and some Roussanne, and 2012 will be
their first vintage of Vermentino. And they
have also planted some Viognier. With
such an eclectic mixture of grape varieties, the harvest lasts about a
month. They were not expecting to pick
some of their Grenache until 1st October. We
stopped in a vineyard to admire some terraces of vines and an old capitelle, as
well as checking the taste of a grape or two.
Some Grenache was quite perfumed and some Carignan has more acidity.

The cellar all works by gravity, so there is no pump. A tronconique vat was wrapped up in plastic, waiting
to be put to use – le petit bijou de cette année, observed Anne.
And in 2011 they had a new press.
There were some new barrels, both barriques and demi-muids; they
experiment with different wood and chauffes; the cements vats had been lined with epoxy and
there are some stainless steel vats too.

And then it was time for some tasting – first some
juice. This is tricky. I followed Pierre’s observations.

The white juice was just starting to ferment. Pierre explained how the sugar can camouflage
things, and there is a yeasty quality, but also some good acidity. He thought it prometteur, and the flavour was
marked by the Roussanne. Grenache Gris
and Blanc are more discreet.

And then we tried the rosé which has been fermenting for about three days, so
it had less sugar but much more acidity.
Some cherry fruit, and acidity from the Carignan. It is a rosé de presse; the grapes for the
white wine will be riper than for the rosé, to maintain acidity.

2011 Carminal Blanc – 9.80€

Grenache Blanc – there’s a bit of Grenache Gris too, though
theoretically that is not allowed in Corbières.
Roussanne, and a little Macabeo and Clairette.

A little colour.
Quite a rounded nose; some body, some weight and a streak of tannin. 20% of the blend is fermented in new oak with
a two month élevage to provide some weight and texture, which are balanced with
acidity. The name Carminal is an
invention, from carmine, a red colour, and cardinal, for the ecclesiastical
associations. A herbal note. The Roussanne adds some complexity, and as
will the Viognier and Vermentino when they come into production.

2011 Rubellis rosé – 6.50€

Orange pink colour, from pressed juice. A blend of Syrah and Grenache, with a little
Carignan to add acidity. Very rounded
ripe and vinous, with a dry finish and some firm fruit. A touch of sucrosité from the Grenache, with a fresh finish and some
good acidity. The choice of grapes is
decided in the vineyard.

For red wine, they explained that they wanted to balance the
traditional with the more aromatic and fruity wines that the consumer wants
today.

2011 RubellisRouge – 6.50€

A blend of 45% Carignan, 35% Grenache and 20% Syrah.
From younger vines and aged in cement.
The percentage changes, depending on the vintage. They are looking for elegance and something
un peu sauvage, a touch of the wild side.
Good young colour. With red fruit
on the nose and a touch of leather.
Quite gutsy on the palate, ripe and leathery with more black fruit and
some herbs of the garrigues. Quite
rugged, definitely un peu sauvage, but also very gouleyant. Medium weight and quite a firm finish.

2009 Carminal – 9.80€

50% Syrah, 35% Grenache and 15% Carignan. The Carignan and Syrah spend 12 months in
wood, while the Grenache remains in vat, and then they are blended and spend a
further six month in vat before bottling before the summer. However, this year they are planning an
experimental fermentation in the tronconique vat, probably of Carignan. The nose was quite rounded, with some
leathery spice on both nose and palate. Some
nicely integrated oak with firm tannins.
Good depth, with a rounded finish.
Very satisfying.

2010 Carminal – recently bottled

Young colour. Quite a
firm young nose, with some black fruit and tapenade. Youthful palate with acidity and tannin. Very tapenade, with good body. Pierre observed that the tannins had suffered
and not yet settled down after bottling.
They are changing the style a little and looking for something more
opulent, but with a certain fraicheur.

2007 Ange – 17€

This was the flagship wine of the previous owners, with a
first vintage in 2001. a blend of 60& Syrah, 30% Grenache and 10% Carignan,
a selection of the best plots. Half the
juice was fermented in 500 litre barrels – and then all the wine was aged in new oak for
12 months. Good deep colour. Very rounded cassis nose. Very harmonious and beginning to evolve. Some cedary notes on the palate. Elegant and still youthful, but developing
beautifully. A long finish.

2009 Ange

Medium colour. Quite rounded ripe nose. Ripe cassis fruit on the palate. Very rounded and harmonious with more depth
than 2007. In 2009 all the wine was fermented
in 500 litres barrels, and there was
more Carignan in the blend, which adds freshness. Carignan is the signature of the Hautes Corbières. And Pierre observed that they were working on
the epaisseur of the wine, depth rather than thickness, I think as a
translation.

2010 Ange

Bottled ten days ago.
Very similar in style but a cooler year.
Young colour. Quite a tight
closed nose with firm red fruit. Quite a perfumed palate, with fresh young
fruit. Some hints of tapenade. Elegant with good depth. The Carignan component comes from 60 – 75
year old vines.

Rosâme, Vin de France – 13€ for 50 cl. From the 2010 vintage
with a little 2011.

Le petit bonbon observed Anne. Grenache Gris from a small vineyard that had been forgotten, so it did not get
picked until November. The grapes were
at four stages of ripeness, ripe, confit, flétri or withered and
raisins. The colour was orange
pick with some ripe spicy honey on the palate, a rounded palate, reminiscent of
sherry trifle and honey, with good acidity.
The ferementation was stopped at 15º, leaving 50 gms/l of residual sugar. It was a lovely finale to the tasting .

And for
lunch we were treated to some deliciuous local charcuterie, which went beautifully with the wines, and freshly picked tomatoes from
the vegetable garden.

Tuesday, 2 October 2012

Jean-Baptise
Granier comes from a wine making family. His grandfather Marcel at Mas Montel in the
village of Aspères in the Gard was one of the
pioneers of the Languedoc; his father Jean-Philippe works for the Comité Interprofessionel des Vins du Languedoc
and is also involved with Mas Montel.
So it would have been very easy
for Jean-Baptiste simply to join the family wine estate but no, he wanted to
create something of his own. And he
was attracted by the hills of the Terrasses du Larzac, in preference to the
flatter land of the Gard, where the wine is ‘good, but not great’.

Officially
Jean-Baptiste does not own any vineyards, but buys grapes. In fact he has created what you could call a
small cooperative of four viticulteurs with vineyards in the village of St.
Privat. That way the wine growers who
were members of the now defunct cooperative of St. Jean de la Blaquière can keep their vineyards, and continue to work them, under Jean-Baptiste’s
direction. They were losing money and the vines would
otherwise have been pulled up.
Jean-Baptiste has established a cahier de charge and makes the key
decisions in the vineyards, which are
now all organic, They were already being
tilled to remove the weeds, and now they share an intercep, a useful piece of
equipment for getting at weeds within the row of vines. Jean-Baptiste said he chose the plots first,
but another criterion was that he also got on with the viticulteur, observing
that he did not want to work alone. You
never drink wine alone – so this is a way of sharing the work and the
experience.

He took us
to see the vineyards – they are in a beautiful spot up in the hills above St.
Privat, with great views towards the Mont Liausson, six hectares altogether, in
about ten plots, all pretty much on the same hillside, making up 60% Grenache,
20% Syrah and 20% Carignan, - some years he might also have some Cinsaut - at
an altitude of 280 – 380 metres, so some of the highest vineyards of the Languedoc. Part of the vineyard is on an outcrop of
schist, some of the last schist of the Hérault, and there is also some marnes
and some grès, as well as a little clay and limestone. We
tasted some grapes, the day before the harvest would start, with some lovely
sweet fruit. There had been some rain at the end of August,
just what the vines needed, which gave them a spurt of energy.

And then
back at his small cellar in St. Jean de la Blacquière we admired
some shining new equipment. Although
Jean-Baptiste likes cement vats, he has sensibly bought some stainless steel
vats as he does not know how long he will stay in this cellar, and might want
to move the vats. Also stainless steel
is much easier to clean and uses less water.
He destems and has a sorting table, and then the grapes are lightly
crushed. It will all work by gravity –
he doesn’t want to use a pump; they take too much water for cleaning. Jean-Baptiste
explained how he did a stage with Olivier Julien in 2007, including an
experiment with some grapes from St. Privat.
They fermented Grenache and Syrah in an open demi-muid, racked it and
put in to wood and liked the result. In
2008 Jean-Baptise went to work chez Faiveley in Burgundy and enjoyed what he
called the energy of a family négociant company, while Oliver Julien
made a bigger cuvée of what they were beginning to
call les Vignes Oubliées.
And it 2009 Jean-Baptise officially created les Vignes Oubliées, the
forgotten vines. And the 2010 and 2011 vintages
were made in Olivier Julien’s cellar in Jonquières.

And then it
was time for some tasting. Jean-Baptiste
makes just one wine each year.

2011 –
bottled on 9th August. And
will be given three months élevage in bottle before he begins to sell it in October. So 60% Grenache, 20% each of Carignan and Syrah. And when does he blend? That depends.
This time he fermented a vat of Syrah and Grenache together; it helps stabilise
the colour of the Grenache. And the wine
spends nine to ten months in 500 or 600 litre demi-muids, with no racking and
fining, and just a light filter. Very
perfumed nose; liqueur cherries, so very Grenache. Some peppery notes on the
palate, so more Syrah on the palate, with some lovely ripe fruit. Quite rounded with a firm tannic streak; ripe
and balanced and rounded. Tout en
finesse.

2010 – same
vinification. 16.00€ 18.000 bottles were made, and virtually all
sold out.

Good
colour; some peppery and spice on the nose; nice leathery notes. Quite
fleshy. Medium weight. Lovely depth and length. You can definitely taste a similarity
between the two wines.

And Jean-Baptiste
is also doing some experiments with white wine; he has access to a little
Clairette, Roussanne and Grenache blanc, which are fermenting in six Burgundian
pieces. I loved his red wine, so I
can’t wait to try his white.

About Me

What qualifies me to write and comment on the Languedoc? Quite simply, I have been following its development for thirty years. I was one of the first women to pass the Master of Wine exams, back in 1979, and I became a freelance wine writer in 1981, since when I have written eleven books, covering not only the Languedoc, but also Chablis, Tuscany and New Zealand.

Why the Languedoc?

My very first visit to a wine cellar in the Languedoc was in 1979 and I have returned regularly since then, researching two books, firstly French Country Wines, and subsequently The Wines of the South of France, from Banyuls to Bellet. French Country Wines was published in 1990 and took me off the beaten track to many lost vineyards of France, but inevitably the Midi formed a large part of the book. In those days you sensed the beginnings of a revival in the fortunes of the region; some of the estates with a serious reputation today, were leading the way back in the 1980s, such as Gilbert Alquier in Faugères; Daniel Domergue in the Minervois; Domaine Cazes in Rivesaltes. Aimé Guibert had made his first vintage at Mas de Daumas Gassac in 1978 and set an unprecedented price expectation for a wine from the south of France. Alain Roux was making pace-setting wines at the Prieuré de St. Jean de Bébian. Other reputations have faded and many others were yet to be made. My visit to the Pic St. Loup focused on the cooperative at St. Mathieu de Tréviers, and on that cooperative alone. The leading names such as l’Hortus, Mas Bruguière, Mas de Mortiès, Clos Marie, or Domaine de Cazeneuve were as yet quite unknown. The same phenomenon applies to the village of Montpeyroux, whose wines were also represented by the village cooperative. At the time no one foresaw the enormous development that would take place in the 1990s.Nonetheless back then, the Languedoc intrigued me. On the last day of my last research trip for French Country Wines, back in October 1987, I had lunch in Narbonne with Claude Vialade, who was the export director for one of the big players of the region, les Vignerons Val d’Orbieu, an enormous marketing and export association of cooperatives and smaller wine producers. One of us said: there is a book to be written on the Languedoc. I mentally filed the idea and ten years on, and two or three books later, I embarked on The Wines of the South of France, which covered all the vineyards between the Spanish and Italian borders, including Provence as well as Languedoc Roussillon, and also the island of Corsica. The Wines of the South of France was published in 2001 and examines the vineyards of the Midi as they were on the eve of the millennium. I could write a second, comparable book, featuring only wine growers who have started making wine in this century. But these days it is impossible to keep abreast of the pace of change with the printed word; the region demands the immediacy of the web. Numerous research trips only served to fuel my enthusiasm for the wonderful region of the Languedoc. Holidays in gîtes between Perpignan and Draguignan, as well as snatched weekends in the middle of research trips, enabled my husband and I to decide on our favourite corner of the Languedoc. And in 2004 we bought a house within easy reach of the towns of Pézenas and Clermont l’Hérault, which gives me a wonderful base for visiting the local wine growers. Our village does not have a particular reputation for its wine, but many of the nearby villages do. We are in very easy reach of Faugères, St. Chinian, some of the highlights of the Coteaux du Languedoc and the new area of Pézenas, as well as the Vin de Pays des Côtes de Thongue, which is one of the more innovative of the numerous vins de pays of the region. So with this blog, I hope to keep abreast of some of the many new and exciting developments in the region

Introduction to the Languedoc

Why the Languedoc? Quite simply, it is without doubt the most exciting and innovative wine region of France. Everything is possible; the appellations may lay down ground rules, but the parallel vins de pays allow for unlimited experimentation, creating a host of new and exciting wines. Over the last twenty years or so this vast vineyard, which stretches from the Spanish border round to the delta of the Rhone has undergone a dramatic transformation, so that the wines have improved out of all recognition. And that pace of change continues unabated, with each vintage bringing new wine growers and new wines. Those are the wines and people I want to talk about, as well as old established favourites. And since wine goes with food, I do not intend to ignore the rich gastronomy of the region. And I also reserve the right occasionally to extend this blog beyond the confines of the Languedoc, into Provence and Corsica and maybe even further afield.